Reflection Starters
The following four pictures and statements are meant to be reflection starters as you articulate your image or story of what you think about God.
> Should you choose the far right statement and the one on the bottom, then select the Bottom
Right picture.
OR
choose the left statement along with either the top or bottom one and then the corresponding
picture.
2. Then reflect and write down for yourself
> Some key experiences that shaped your concept of who you are.
> How you wold tell someone who you are.
The following four pictures and statements are meant to be reflection starters as you articulate your image or story of what you think about God.
- Choose the two statements which best reflect your current perspective.
> Should you choose the far right statement and the one on the bottom, then select the Bottom
Right picture.
OR
choose the left statement along with either the top or bottom one and then the corresponding
picture.
2. Then reflect and write down for yourself
> Some key experiences that shaped your concept of who you are.
> How you wold tell someone who you are.
YOUR IMAGE OR CONCEPT OF GOD
What experiences helped formed your understanding of God?
How would you tell another person who God is?
What experiences helped formed your understanding of God?
How would you tell another person who God is?
Story
One day, while visiting the fourth grade classrooms several students asked me, “What does God look like?” I wasn’t sure how to respond so I said, “That’s a good question. Let me think about it and I’ll come back and let you know. By the next week I had an answer. I went back to the classrooms and said, “God is like light, the most beautiful, warm light that we have ever experience. God is like the sun on a beautiful, warm summer day. God is like the most beautiful rainbow that you have ever seen . In the very beginning God said, “Let there be light.” Many people who have had a near death experience report being in the presence of a beautiful, loving light. |
Today many people have questions about God. This is an important issue because a person's image or understanding about God shapes much of one's life. Below are some important aspects about this issue
The fundamental Question
A person could substitute the word ULTIMATE for the word God. Does God or an ultimate exist? This is an important question but practically speaking a more basic question is: “What kind of God or ultimate exists for you?”
Different people at different times have developed a variety of answers.
1) Early Greeks and Romans thought there were many Gods who involved
people in their jealousies, acts of vengeance and favors.
2) Some think that that Ultimate in the universe or God is capricious, prone to anger and vengeful.
3) Others imagine God as an architect or movie director having a specific plan for every moment and
day of a person’s life.
4) Still others expect God to be their butler responding to their every request.
5) For others the Ultimate is to “eat, drink and be merry” for soon they will die.
6) Some believe that the Ultimate in indifferent to the world and to them.
7) Some believe that there is no ultimate and that each one needs to live life as they choose.
Does God Exist?
Today a number of people are asking “Does God exists?” This is an important and worthwhile questions but it is helpful to ask two prior questions. Why? Because the word “Ultimate” can be used in place of the word “God” and everyone longs for the Ultimate. The first question is “What are the ultimate questions about life?” The second question is “What kind of Ultimate or God do you long for or believe in”? Everyone believes, in a more or less explicitly way, in some form of an ultimate even if it is their own self.
Mystery
Our life is wonderful, exciting and full of possibilities and at the same time, uncertain, ambiguous and complex. For instance today we know more than ever before about the stars, our genes, the atomic structure of matter, food and almost every aspect of life but we find ourselves asking more and more questions. Recently, for instance, astronomers detected a mysterious cloud of particles spewing more than 17,400 trillion miles into space like a massive fountain. The Scientists who announced the discovery said they were amazed, perplexed and delighted.
The proper word to describe such amazement, perplexity and delight (the wonder, complexity and ambiguity of life) is mystery. Here, mystery is not used in the sense of a murder mystery. A murder mystery can be solved once enough questions have been asked and answered, but faced with the Mystery of Life we can keep on asking questions and we’ll always have more questions than answers. This means we have to interpret and make sense of reality
Ultimate Questions About Life:
Traditionally the four classic questions that people ask themselves are:
But there is another set of questions that one might ask. Clifford Geertz, a cultural anthropologist, studied a number of civilizations. He examined various societies from the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks to our modern ones. He concluded that every society tries to explain the meaning of life by answering the following six basic questions in an ultimate sense:
For instance, we all experience the conflict between Good and Evil, but which will triumph? Secular society gives us Batman (a symbol of Good) triumphing over the Joker (a symbol of Evil). But Batman is fiction and our own experience of Good triumphing over Evil is, more often than not, rather transitory. At times it can seem as if Evil will be triumphant. When confronted with the conflict between Good and Evil, we struggle to decide what we really believe about the final victor.
Each one must struggle with answering, these six basic questions. The answers will be more or less explicit. Everyone is spiritual in the sense that they develop an answer to these questions. Formal and explicit answers shape the nature of one’s religion. The word religion means “to bind” or “to link”. The more formal and explicit one’s answers the more explicit (bound together or structured) is one’s religion. All great religions help their members answer these questions and link one to the Ultimate, their neighbors and creation.
Depending on the answers given, a person also knows what kind of God he or she believes in, for the word GOD is shorthand for the word ULTIMATE. Understood in this way the most important question is not whether God exists but what kind of God or Ultimate does one believe in.
Traditionally the four classic questions that people ask themselves are:
- Who am I?
- Why am I here?
- Where am I going?
- How will I get there?
But there is another set of questions that one might ask. Clifford Geertz, a cultural anthropologist, studied a number of civilizations. He examined various societies from the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks to our modern ones. He concluded that every society tries to explain the meaning of life by answering the following six basic questions in an ultimate sense:
- Does Life really triumph over the grave or is the grave the end?
- Will Good finally overcome evil or will evil overcome Good?
- Is life simply determined by simply by random chance or is there some purpose and meaning to it?
- Can people ever find a way to live in Peace with one another?
- Can we make contact with the Ultimate in the universe?
- Why do terrible things happen to cause such suffering?
For instance, we all experience the conflict between Good and Evil, but which will triumph? Secular society gives us Batman (a symbol of Good) triumphing over the Joker (a symbol of Evil). But Batman is fiction and our own experience of Good triumphing over Evil is, more often than not, rather transitory. At times it can seem as if Evil will be triumphant. When confronted with the conflict between Good and Evil, we struggle to decide what we really believe about the final victor.
Each one must struggle with answering, these six basic questions. The answers will be more or less explicit. Everyone is spiritual in the sense that they develop an answer to these questions. Formal and explicit answers shape the nature of one’s religion. The word religion means “to bind” or “to link”. The more formal and explicit one’s answers the more explicit (bound together or structured) is one’s religion. All great religions help their members answer these questions and link one to the Ultimate, their neighbors and creation.
Depending on the answers given, a person also knows what kind of God he or she believes in, for the word GOD is shorthand for the word ULTIMATE. Understood in this way the most important question is not whether God exists but what kind of God or Ultimate does one believe in.
What kind of Ultimate or God do you long for or believe in?
The reality is everyone believes in some sort of ultimate. It might be a rather nebulous force or nature or even one’s self. Agnostics simply say they do not know if there is some type of God. Atheists say there is no God or ultimate force or power beyond what can be proved by reason alone. But the question remains, “What kind of Ultimate or God are they talking about?
America's Four Gods:
The ancient Greeks and Romans as well as others believed that there were many gods and humans were at caught up in their whims and jealousies. Jews, Christians and Muslims believe in one God. Paul Froese and Christopher Bader wrote a book titled “America’s Four Gods” In it they described four different views that Americans have of God.
1) A God who is both engaged in the world and judgmental = The Authoritative God.
2) A God who is engaged in the world but not judgmental = The Benevolent God.
3) A God who is not engaged in the world but is judgmental = The Critical God.
4) A God who is not engaged in the world and is not judgmental = The Distant God
What kind of Ultimate or God do you long for or believe in?
The reality is everyone believes in some sort of ultimate. It might be a rather nebulous force or nature or even one’s self. Agnostics simply say they do not know if there is some type of God. Atheists say there is no God or ultimate force or power beyond what can be proved by reason alone. But the question remains, “What kind of Ultimate or God are they talking about?
America's Four Gods:
The ancient Greeks and Romans as well as others believed that there were many gods and humans were at caught up in their whims and jealousies. Jews, Christians and Muslims believe in one God. Paul Froese and Christopher Bader wrote a book titled “America’s Four Gods” In it they described four different views that Americans have of God.
1) A God who is both engaged in the world and judgmental = The Authoritative God.
2) A God who is engaged in the world but not judgmental = The Benevolent God.
3) A God who is not engaged in the world but is judgmental = The Critical God.
4) A God who is not engaged in the world and is not judgmental = The Distant God
Can one prove that God Exists?
No, a person cannot prove that God exists. One can only show that it is reasonable to believe in the existence of God.
St. Thomas Aquinas used as a basis for his Theology the philosophical approach of Aristotle, the Greek philosopher. He developed five arguments for the existence of a Transcendent Being. These are his “five proofs” or better “reasons” why is it reasonable to believe in God.
1- FIRST MOVER: Some things are in motion. Anything moved is moved by another, and there can't be an
infinite series of movers. So there must be a first mover (a mover that isn't itself moved by another).
This is God.
2- FIRST CAUSE: Some things are caused. Anything that is caused is caused by another, and there can't be
an infinite series of causes. So there must be a first cause (a cause that isn't itself caused by another).
This is God.
3- NECESSARY BEING: Every contingent being at some time fails to exist. So if everything were contingent,
then at some time there would have been nothing -- and so there would be nothing now -- which is
clearly not the case. So, not everything is contingent. Thus there is a necessary being. This is God.
4- GREATEST BEING: Some things are greater than others. Whatever is great to any degree gets its
greatness from that which is the greatest. So there is a greatest being, which is the source of all
greatness. This is God.
5- INTELLIGENT DESIGNER: Many things in the world that lack intelligence act for an end. Whatever acts
for an end must be directed by an intelligent being. So the world must have an intelligent designer.
This is God.
Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J. in his book New Proofs for the Existence of God would point as an example to the reality of “universal constants” (e.g. the speed of light) as one of the “proofs” or better "reasonable likelihood of an "Transcendent or Ultimately Intelligible Cause - or God - of our universe". Using current scientific findings, he restates and elaborates on Aquinas' "proofs". Here's a sample of his approach.
1- The argument from contingency or dependence.
Statement: Matter, or the universe as a totality, or the big bang, or "energy” is an explanation of all that is.
Response: Think for a moment of the room or building that one is in. Clearly an architect designed it and one can determine the architect’s style. The architect, however, is not in the building. In a similar way, the Creator, by definition, not a “something” in the world that he created, but is outside the world. The big bang is itself the clearest indication that the entire universe - including matter and energy –are radically contingent and in need of a cause extrinsic to itself.
2- The argument from intelligibility
Statement: Science gives no evidence of God's existence.
Response: True enough. In and of itself, science gives no direct evidence of God’s existence but it points to a reality beyond itself. What every scientist presumes is the intelligibility of the universe or of the particular field in which they are working. Thus we know much more now than we have ever known both about, for example, the stars and our genetic makeup and else we have studied, but we also have many more questions. Such intelligibility indicates that it is the result of some amazing architect. The scientific method itself would point to that reality.
A major source of difficulty in the entire discussion about God is that we are dealing with what is known as metaphysical (beyond the physical) reality. It is like dealing with the reality of Love or Courage or Happiness. While we can observe instances and actions the reality of such concepts is beyond the physical and can best be discussed in metaphysical language.
"Why do we believe in God?"
Bishop Robert Barron |
"Who God is and Who God is not." Bishop Robert Barron
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"New proofs for the Existence of God" by Fr. Robert Spitzer
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Our Catholic Story:
As Catholics we believe
As Catholics we believe
- God is mystery. We cannot and never will fully understatnd God.
- God is totally other but at the same time personally concerned with this world, indiviudally with each person and with all that exists.
- God is the Source of all Graciousness or Grace: goodness, right order and life.
- Jesus called God, "Father" or “Abba”.
- God not only loves us, but is with us and acts for us to save us and bring us new life. It is for this reason that we can love others, be with them and act for them.
Your story
Would you modify your story of who God is for you in some way?
Other Questions
What other questions do you have or would like to ask?
A) ________________________________________________________________
B) ________________________________________________________________
C) ________________________________________________________________
Would you modify your story of who God is for you in some way?
Other Questions
What other questions do you have or would like to ask?
A) ________________________________________________________________
B) ________________________________________________________________
C) ________________________________________________________________
Some Additional Resources
Links
> God Questions
* Why do we believe in God?
* Where does this longing to know God come from?
* If we have this “homing device” to seek God, why are there so many people who don’t?
* What are the most common views of God?
* What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
* How should I think about the Trinity? How could God be three persons?
* How can God be both one and many?
* How does God speak to us?
* Is there really a “small still voice” in me and why does that matter?
* Can I know God’s purpose for my life?
* God seems so far away. Does he really care about me personally?
* Why is silence a necessity to creating a relationship with God?
* Does God want me to be happy?
* What does God want from me? What is the essence of Christianity?
Fr. Robert Spitzer's main website: magisreasonfaith.org
Books
1- ”The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss”, by David Bentley Hart (Book)
2- “God, the Evidence”, by Patrick Glynn (Book)
3- “New Proofs for the Existence of God”, from Modern Science by Fr. Robert J. Spitzer purpose in my life?
How do I find meaning and purpose in my life?